Green UCL Annual Report published

5 August 2014

Green UCL’s Annual Report for 2012-13 is now ready. This report showcases examples of best practice and sets out our progress in creating a more sustainable UCL.

In April 2013, the UCL Council approved the institution’s first Environmental Sustainability Strategy following extensive consultation across the institution. The strategy sets out five strategic aims:

To create a campus which supports UCL’s activities in a sustainable way

To enable, empower and support all UCL communities to address our environmental sustainability impacts

To provide the education, advancement, dissemination and application of sustainable development

To maximise the wider impact of UCL’s environmental sustainability activities at local, regional, national and international level through collaboration, partnership and communication

To become a leader in environmental sustainability across the HE sector

Our Annual Report sets out the progress which has been made in 2012/13 against these strategic aims and, in particular, the targets and commitments set out in the strategy. It provides some case studies of best practice and also a summary of our key goals for the coming year.

One of several infographics illustrating elements of UCL's impacts, approach to carbon and vision for the future.

Some highlights

Sustainable refurbishment of 31 Tavistock Square

Built in 1826, 31 Tavistock Square is a Grade 2* listed building, situated in the Bloomsbury conservation area. Previously used as a domestic dwelling, this refurbishment project transformed the space into offices with sector-leading environmental performance, all while respecting the heritage of the building.

UCL Wifi Project

In 2012, the Sustainability Team launched a competition to find a way of visualising environmental data. Several challenge workshops were initiated and one team was chosen to explore wifi as the means by which building occupancy could be tracked, creating a pioneering online tool which allowed the energy and occupancy data to be mapped simultaneously.

Provost Teaching Award for 'Engineering Thinking' module

Dr Sarah Bell worked with Professor Andrea Sella and the Sustainability Team to devise a student project for the 'Engineering Thinking' module of the new Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BASc) degree. Using their teaching spaces as a living lab, BASc students were divided into two groups which developed different proposals for providing automated water meter systems for the teaching laboratories. These proposals were presented as competitive tenders and the winning design was implemented and installed by UCL's plumbers.

Chemical Sharing

Quartzy is a free online database through research groups can log their chemicals and manage bookings for equipment. Using this tool, UCL's Department of Chemistry has created a database of twenty thousand bottles of chemicals, each individually labelled and located.The safety and sustainability benefits have been huge and the department is also saving a significant amount of money, both reducing purchase costs, and the cost of disposing of unneeded chemicals.